Cheerleaders Now Catch The Spirit More With Disco Than Pompons

April 14, 1986|By Eric Zorn.

There was some weird stuff going down on stage with teenagers writhing around in brightly colored body bags, but this did not visibly bother Kristy Kelly, who stood in the wings with Vaseline on her teeth and a knot in her stomach.

Kelly, a senior captain of Joliet West High School`s defending international champion pompon squad, had her own routine to think about: high kicks, sharp turns, smooth sweeps of her white-gloved hands and a perfect, petroleum-jellied smile.

Nervous? You bet. The 18-member team was shooting for a third-straight

``triple crown`` title at the World International Cheerleading Championships, which concluded Sunday at the Chicago Hilton and Towers hotel, 720 S. Michigan Ave. The competition among 54 teams from 10 states and Canada was stiffer, and stranger, than ever.

Cheerleading and pompon waving have become somewhat exotic arts, in case you haven`t kept up. A competing team from a high school in Riverview, Mich., for example, apparently entertains halftime crowds back home by putting on whiteface makeup, red gowns and black hoods and doing a danse macabre to some very eerie metal music.

Go team.

``There`s been a lot of progress,`` said Ida Hizer, associate director of the sponsoring U.S. Cheerleading Association. ``Years ago it was a few arm motions and jumps, with not a lot of skill. Now it is really a team sport.``

The Joliet West squad, which performs in conservative black and yellow cheerleader dresses, practices at least twice a week year-round. Many of them go to cheerleading camp and have ambitions to continue their careers in college.

Cheerleading teams still tend to be made up of around a dozen leather-lunged females in Buster Brown shoes and short skirts, although boys have infiltrated the ranks in some schools.

However, pompon teams, most of which have dispensed with pompons, have become very slick, synchronized dance units. Joliet West`s routine, for instance, was accompanied by a very punchy disco number and ended with the girls collapsed dramatically on the floor.

Kelly had pronounced it a ``sentimental`` last performance. Afterwards, she said that the performance ``felt together,`` but coach Niki Alander, a 17- year veteran of the pompon circuit, noticed two mistakes: an ``anticipation`` movement off the beat of the music and one slight loss of balance.

The judges, all dance and cheerleading savants, were strict about unsteadiness afoot and a variety of ``illegal stunts,`` such as ``knee slams,`` which are just what they sound like.

After their routine, the Joliet West girls gathered up their lucky dolls and stuffed animals and began the agonizing wait for the announcement of winners.

All 700 competitors filed into the ballroom, many holding hands, and swayed to the endless strains of ``Chariots of Fire.`` There were many tears. Team by team, category by category, Hizer announced the results. When she got to the pompon category, which vies for the unofficial honor of most prestigious with large-school varsity cheerleading, the Joliet West team sat in a small circle on the floor with heads bowed.

Eight other teams were named runners-up. Body bags did not place. Black hoods came in fourth.

When two teams were left, Kristy Kelly crossed herself and began hyperventilating. ``Second place,`` said Hizer, and the girls lowered their eyes, ``Joliet West High School.``

Second place? To a team from Cypress, Calif.? Stunned looks crossed their faces for a crushing instant. They froze. Then, like real champions, they summoned that old, cheerleader spirit from deep inside. They squealed. They hugged each other.